Thursday, November 4, 2010

Envisioning You!

Tom Cruise and I share a birthday. I am not trying to brag or anything. I always thought it was special to think that Tommy and I are born on the same day – while he celebrates, I celebrate.

Tom is an icon to a generation. Tom has spent dancing around in his underwear in Risky Business, he captivated audiences with his jet fighter prowess in Top Gun, and continues to awe us today as the center of numerous entertainment rumour mills. Tom is what we would call a Mega Star.

I am by no means a star. I am but a grain of sand in Tom’s world. Beyond sharing the same day of birth we have nothing else in common. I may have watched a few of his movies here and there, but he was never able to witness my performance in Footloose: The Musical and, at the same time, I never watched Cocktail. Tom exists in my world, but only as five grains of sand.

In my mind – I am the star. Is this confidence? Cockiness? Does this mean I have an attitude? I don’t think so. I think it’s perfectly healthy to hold yourself in high regard.

Growing up playing sports, I was always told to envision success. Before a game, I was to sit and think about all the positive things I was going to do on the field. As I grew older, this advice was reinforced, when I read a sports therapy book that talked about envisioning what you do at fast speeds. Their reasoning was that if you envisioned yourself doing things at a fast pace you would be able replicate those fast motions when you began playing. The constant envisioning created a belief in myself. The more I thought about success the more successful I became.

This “envisionment” (I will call it) has stuck with me my whole life. It has branched out from simple sports therapy and flowed into other aspects of my day-to-day. Oddly enough, my envisionment is often conjured by music. I’ll be listening to something and before I know it I am the singer, I am an actor, or I am the world’s best athlete. Am I living in a fantasy world?

I decided to do a little research and ask some close friends and family if they also “envisioned” themselves in the same light. I initially thought that most people were probably like me, but I quickly found out this wasn’t the case. Some people told me “no” outright, others said they only envisioned about one specific aspect of their life, while others said they were only able to envision themselves as the best if they were actually the best at it. When I asked if envisioning made them feel good they all replied with various answers – all ending in a “yes.”

Whether it’s self-taught or self-practiced “envisionment” feels good. I mean, I may not be a rock star, but what I do know is, when I open my eyes I feel pretty good and how we feel inside is reflected on the outside – it’s how the world sees you.